The world of film and television begins with Hikaru no Go

The questioning continued for about half an hour.

Di Renjie did not press Hu Jinghui. He simply checked the place names and dates several times before putting down his pen, folding the few pages he had written down, and putting them into his sleeve.

Then he got up, pushed open the door to the study, and gave a few instructions to Di Chun, who was waiting in the corridor.

Di Chun responded and turned to do it.

Hu Jinghui's belongings were packed by Di Chun, and from this moment on, Hu Jinghui would stay by Di Gong's side.

Zhang Rui floated in the corner; the kitchen knife from before had been quietly returned to the kitchen.

Watching Di Renjie standing at the door talking to Di Chun, Hu Jinghui stood by the table, the tea in his hand had gone cold, and he hadn't drunk a drop.

The two men had just engaged in a life-or-death confrontation, yet the study was now as quiet as if nothing had happened.

It was just past noon, and the sun was beginning to set slightly westward.

When Li Yuanfang came out of the east wing, he had already slung his knife over his shoulder. When he saw Hu Jinghui standing behind Di Renjie, he paused for a moment.

"Sir, shall we leave now?"

"Let's go now."

When Di Renjie walked into the courtyard, Di Chun had already harnessed the carriage. The two lead horses were newly replaced, and thick bedding was laid out in the carriage. A small charcoal stove was placed near the window.

Di Renjie sat down in a seat further inside, and Zhang Rui floated in and landed beside him.

Hu Jinghui did not follow the carriage. Instead, he mounted his own horse and rode it to the right side of the carriage, flanking it with Li Yuanfang on either side.

Di Chun sat on the carriage shaft, glanced back at Di Gong, who nodded slightly. Di Gong then cracked the whip, and the carriage rumbled out of the alley.

Once outside the city gate, the number of pedestrians on the official road gradually decreased.

The afternoon sun was halfway west, and the stubble fields by the roadside shimmered with a faint white light, while the distant mountain ridges appeared a grayish-blue.

The carriage moved slowly but steadily.

Only Di Renjie and Zhang Rui were in the carriage. The curtain was half-rolled up, and Hu Jinghui's profile could be seen outside the window, rising and falling slightly with the horse's back.

His back was ramrod straight, his hands rested on his knees, and his knife hung on the left side of the saddle. He didn't change his posture from beginning to end.

Zhang Rui floated to the car window, glanced outside, and then floated back.

"My lord, regarding Hu Jinghui's matter... are you really not going to tell Yuanfang?"

"No need," Di Renjie said, leaning against the carriage wall. "Yuanfang is straightforward and can't keep secrets. It's natural that he doesn't know right now."

Outside the carriage window, Hu Jinghui's horse hooves clattered evenly, while Li Yuanfang occasionally reined in his horse to identify the direction of the fork in the road.

The wind blew in through the half-rolled-up carriage curtain, carrying the dry, earthy smell of late autumn, mixed with a trace of the lingering warmth of the sun-baked wheat stubble fields in the distance.

Di Renjie closed his eyes for a while, then suddenly opened them and turned his head to look at Zhang Rui.

"There's one more thing. Don't go into the kitchen anymore, and definitely don't hide a kitchen knife behind your back."

Zhang Rui was taken aback, then remembered.

"Since you won't give me a sword, I have no choice but to..."

"I already told you why I didn't give you the sword—you don't need it." Di Renjie interrupted him, his tone several degrees heavier than before. "I mean, I told you back in the crimson tent not to do such a thing. Do you think I don't remember?"

Zhang Rui opened his mouth, but swallowed back the words he had prepared.

Of course he remembered what Judge Di was referring to. That night in the crimson tent, the carriage was riddled with arrows, and he instinctively reached out to block them, his hand passing right through the arrow shaft.

Later, the bodies of those masked men lay across the alley, the moonlight illuminating their pale faces and the half-dried blood on the ground. He saw them, but didn't say much along the way.

I thought that Di Renjie hadn't noticed, but I didn't expect him to remember it.

"……yes."

Di Renjie withdrew his gaze and said nothing more.

The carriage fell silent, with only the rumble of wheels rolling over the stone slabs of the official road.

Zhang Rui leaned against the carriage wall, watching Di Renjie close his eyes to rest, knowing that what had just been said was now in the past.

The journey over the next few days was uneventful and dull.

On both sides of the official road were vast fields of wheat stubble, with withered grass lying on the field ridges. Occasionally, a few villages were passed by, and occasionally farmers carrying hoes were encountered, but no one gave the blue cloth carriage a second glance.

Hu Jinghui rode his horse on the right side of the carriage the whole time, with his knife at his side and his eyes fixed on the road leading to them at both ends.

Li Yuanfang led the way, occasionally turning back to say, "There's a fork in the road ahead."

Whenever they needed to stay at a hotel, Di Chun would arrange the rooms.

There are three main rooms: one for Di Renjie, one for Li Yuanfang, and one for Hu Jinghui.

Hu Jinghui was the General of the Thousand Bull Guard, and on the surface, he was still a general who accompanied and protected the generals, and he had all the dignity that was due to him.

However, his room was arranged between Di Renjie and Li Yuanfang, with the window facing the inner courtyard and the door next to the backyard where the carriages were parked.

Every night before going to bed, Di Chun would go to the yard to add a trough of hay for the horses. On his way back, he would casually touch the window at the end of the corridor to see if it was closed tightly.

Zhang Rui kept a close eye on Hu Jinghui throughout the journey. Hu Jinghui made no unnecessary movements, did not talk to any strangers, and did not linger for even a moment while feeding the horses.

He kept his presence to a minimum, simply following the group forward in silence.

Several days later, the carriage entered the territory of Taiyuan Prefecture.

The official road widened, and pedestrians and caravans gradually became more numerous. Tea stalls and post stations began to appear along the roadside.

Di Gong lifted the carriage curtain, glanced at the outline of the city wall at the end of the official road, lowered the curtain, and said to Di Chun, "Let's stop at the post station ahead."

The inn was small, but people came and went.

Taiyuan was a major thoroughfare, and messengers and officials came and went in and out of the courtyard.

Di Renjie found a quiet corner in the backyard of the inn, ordered a pot of tea, and slowly sipped it.

Di Chun settled the carriages and horses, and Li Yuanfang and Hu Jinghui each sat in a corner of the courtyard, neither of them speaking.

It wasn't until dusk, and the faces in the inn changed one after another, that Di Renjie put down his tea money and stood up.

A procession of imperial envoys was passing by on the official road, their flags fluttering and their lanterns brightly lit.

This was arranged before leaving the capital. The procession was grand and carried out on the official road to Taiyuan, where the emperor would perform the ancestral rites on behalf of the emperor.

The procession looked impressive, but it was actually just an empty shell.

The real elites and investigators had already dispersed into several groups, agreeing to meet in Youzhou.

The procession didn't even stop in front of the post station, heading straight for the city gate of Taiyuan, attracting the post station staff to crowd to the entrance to watch the spectacle.

Taking advantage of the commotion, Di Gong had Di Chun hitch up the carriage, and the four of them quietly left through the back gate of the post station, taking a small path outside the city wall to bypass Taiyuan City.

Once outside the territory of Taiyuan Prefecture, the official road gradually narrowed.

The wheat fields along the roadside have been replaced by wasteland and low hills, and the earthy smell in the wind has become stronger.

Several days later, the carriage turned onto a side road. There was a boundary marker by the roadside, the characters of which were blurred and only the words "Youzhou" could be barely made out.

Hu Jinghui turned slightly to the side on horseback and said something into the carriage.

"My lord, the territory of Youzhou is just ahead."

Di Renjie lifted the carriage curtain and looked at the stele, but said nothing.

The wheels continued rolling forward, the low hills on both sides of the road gradually receded, and the horizon widened.

The gray outline of the city wall gradually emerged from the twilight in the distance. First, it was a blurry shadow, then the flagpole on the city tower became clear, and then the city gate opened wide, with several soldiers standing lazily on both sides.

"Go into town."